I’m Your Medic - Now Do Your Part!
I’ve been meaning to write this article for a while and I was finally driven to get it down after a spate of infuriating matches as well as loafaries’ related rant, which I sympathised with. Deeply.
So we’ve all seen plenty of articles and comments on how to play each individual class well, but for a team game, there’s frustratingly few pieces about how to coordinate with your teammates. Sure, a lot of this is down to in-game communications and tactics, as well as careful class selection, but there’s one obvious in-game relationship for which there are a number of rules that really should be followed - the Medic-Target pairing.
We’ll start off with the obvious ones, but there’s probably a couple that might not have occurred to you before, so please do your entire team and your poor medic a favour and keep these points in mind next time you’re on the other end of a healing beam…
Stop crying my name if you got full health.
Captain Spalding nailed this obvious point in his rap, but for some reason people don’t get the message. Sure it doesn’t matter if it’s setup time and everybody is spamming, whatever. But there are times it’s just detrimental to the team. These are the people I’m talking to:
- That lone, dumbass sniper on the other side of the map to everybody else who is actually just bored because he’s sitting around failing to be useful.
- The heavy who thinks I’m doing it wrong just because I’m healing people who aren’t him. I know heavy-medic teams work well, no that doesn’t mean I’m your personal property when there’s people overdosing on their daily rocket intake on the front lines.
- The guy who I’ve not only healed, but have already buffed to 150%. Boy, this one really gets me. Don’t do it – it’s not big, it’s not clever and your name is displayed right there on the screen to add to my mental ‘heal last of all the injured guys list’.
Soldier or demo who wants to rocket jump? Fine! Somebody who spawned behind me and wants me to heal them whilst we run to the front lines? Fine! Just don’t do it when you’re going to either just piss me off or draw my attention away from people who need it.
They call it a ‘Support Class’.
Hookay, another obvious one - support class, not assault class. Despite the debate over the usefulness of the ‘battle medic’, the fact remains that a lot of us medic-players choose the class because we’d rather heal, deploy ubers and help coordinate people rather than frag n00bs directly. Sure, I’m not too bad at killing stuff when I’m playing soldier or demo, I can even take down the odd spy/scout/pyro with careful application of the Blutsauger, but with 150 health and a primary weapon that combines low damage with parabolic drop, I’m not going to be setting any new kill records. Bear that in mind when your friendly medic locks his healing beam onto you. Here’s some things you should avoid doing.
- Running past enemies. Sounds stupid, but people do it. I’ve been in a corridor healing a soldier when he’s launched a token rocket at an oncoming pyro, missed spectacularly and carried on charging forward past the pyro to attack the guys down the tunnel probably assuming the healing beam will keep him safe. Guess what happens to the medic who is face-to-face with a pyro and currently wielding a gun incapable of killing anybody? Yeah…
- Sudden rocket-jumping. Now I’m not saying don’t rocket jump, that would be stupid. I’m happy to give you a healing boost to send you on your way, but if we’ve just charged into an area with 3 or 4 bad guys and you decide now is a great time to gain a height advantage from a nearby ledge, guess what’s going to happen to that 80% uber I had? Yeah, back to spawn and back to 0% - that’s going to help the team.
Saving peoples’ lives, so give me a little credit.
What do I mean by giving me a little credit? Picture the scene – You’re playing RED on Dustbowl stage one, cap one. BLU come flying out of their spawn and launch a big ol’ volley of ammunition at your face, most of which you swallow like bad medicine. Your friendly team medic has taken some nasty splash damage from nearby explosions, but nevertheless locks his healing beam onto you as the two of you run into the Capture Point hut for cover. At this point, you’re being healed by a beam of energy which is going to boost you up to 150% health in a matter of seconds. There is one thing you should NOT, I repeat NOT do at this point:
DO NOT RUN AND GRAB THAT MASSIVE HEALTH PACK AT THE BACK OF THE HUT!
Seriously, this has gotta infuriate me more than any other thing when I’m playing medic. On anything except a large team of 10 or more, I’m very often the only medic and thus the only person on the team who cannot be healed by the medigun. I’ve lost count of how many times myself and my medigun target have taken a beating and the inconsiderate moron has run and grabbed the health pack nearby whilst I’m on 15 health and dodging incoming enemy fire.
Here’s what to do: Take cover for all of 3 seconds whilst I build you right back up to 150% of your normal health and let me take that medkit. Use that time to think about what you did wrong that ended up with you catching grenades with your face. Then, with you on 150% health and me on 100% health, we’ll charge back out and cause some serious pain. Not only that but I wont have to build my ubercharge meter back up from 0% all over again when I die. In fact, because you’ve been such an awesome and considerate medic buddy, I might even pop that uber on you instead of the other guy. How about that?
This is the kind of play that’s good for the whole team. Everybody benefits, the team gets more ubercharges and gets them faster and nobody has to hear me sobbing into the microphone. Trust me, it’s depressing to hear.
So give me a little credit – trust that I’ll heal you up and I’ll make sure I do.
Danke Schön!
Ok, I could go on, but I know what kind of attention spans we internet blog reader types have. Depending on the response to this rant, I may be back with more to say on the subject of being a good medic buddy. Danke Schön to those players who have been awesome medigun partners, you know you’ll be the first one I rush to help when the fight heats up.
Now, who’s up for some doctor-assisted homicide?
Another big welcome to daregveda, with some timely advice to all the newly converted heavy players with a stuck “E” key trying desperately to unlock a sandvich - madlep
daregveda on August 24th 2008 in team fortress 2
Stumble it!
Turtles responded on 24 Aug 2008 at 9:51 pm #
If only we could force every TF2 player to read this
Stupid medics are just as annoying as an incompetent medic buddy.
Just yesterday I had to explain to a medic that he would be much better off using the medic class to heal people instead of running around shooting enemys with his needle gun. I never once saw him heal a team-mate, even when you were standing right next to him screaming into the mic and bashing E. I tried to explain to him that if he wanted to kill people he should go another class. sigh, he played like this for 2 hours or so….
Hobnail Sneakers responded on 24 Aug 2008 at 10:21 pm #
Dealt with this tonight, actually. I had one guy who would call for me EVERY time he’d take even a little damage. Finally got to the point where I simply ignored him, unless I was in the area anyway.
Another suggestion for Medic buddies: If your Medic is low on health, take the time to lead him to a medkit, or at the very least some cover to he can catch his breath. I’ve actually confused a couple of Medics when I’ve done this for them.
Jimminy Cricket responded on 24 Aug 2008 at 10:45 pm #
Very nice article; well written and a good sense of what you’re trying to get across. I totally agree and having medic as my MPC I fully understand the problems you encounter but I have developed some tactics to help with situations when the people on your team are just too retarded to understand what you type.
First, when people yell medic constantly while they are running away from you with around 120% health already I suggest you merely stop healing them. I usually ask people; warn them and then stop healing them entirely at which point they drop to the bottom of the leaderboard and cry like little babies. Next time they might consider their actions that little bit more before they act like retarded monkies that have their hands stuck in a jar.
Second, learn to play battle medic a little better. If your target is stupid enough to ignore the people rushing past him/her to mess you up good or if they just don’t look back to check you’re not being molested by the neighborhood spy pull out your saw and mess those enemies up good. It’s also a lot more satisfying when you kill them yourself and have an uber ready to pop on the person you weren’t just healing…
oldmeme responded on 24 Aug 2008 at 11:13 pm #
I’ll admit, I am a horrible at the sudden rocket jump point but that is because it is very rare to see a Soldier-Medic buddy pact so I make myself scarce once I have the 150% HP.
Other than that, I like to think I am considerate of team Medics, letting them have the medic packs etc.
possom1234 responded on 25 Aug 2008 at 1:00 am #
Great post. I primarily play medic and heavy so see both sides of this and am very considerate of “my medics”.
If you only remember 2 things from this, and make them a priority…
Medic is not your property… do not expect or demand his attention.
Medic is very important to the struggle your team is in… keep him alive, dont rush him into battle hastily, and watch HIS health too (there is a reason you see it on your HUD) and retreat for him to heal, or a good one is going to retreat from you… alot sooner than you expect.
TRICHO responded on 25 Aug 2008 at 1:06 am #
bawwwwwwwwwwwwww
possom1234 responded on 25 Aug 2008 at 1:47 am #
Another note!!
Stay in pairs if you are an offensive type. Unless you are a spy or stealthy, traveling and battling with other people will generally be better.
And.. a medic can spread out the love to a group of people and will be attracteded towards a group rather than a lone ranger.
LaZodiac responded on 25 Aug 2008 at 3:21 am #
I’d feel horrible just posting here with a comment in the hopes someone might click my name link, so I’ll come up with something good to say.
Throughout my entire 2 days of TF2 on the 360, I’ve only encountered one medic that ever healed. Sadly, it was on 2Fort.
That reminds me. 2Fort is much diffirent in the 360 version. Although still bad, I’ve seen Snipers fight their way to the flag, cap it, then hustle it all the way back. I’ve also seen an Engy set up a teleporter and one sentry nest in the enemy spawn.
BathrobeAssassin responded on 25 Aug 2008 at 3:36 am #
One time we got six sentries in the enemy intel. One Engy managed to slip through amidst the fighting, called for backup, lo and behold we had six or seven engineers.
…Thing was. RED did the same thing to us. In retrospect I wish we could have actually fortified each other’s bases. That would have been interesting.
…Oh yeah, another whiney Medic. No one except you “gud medik” types even pay attention to those symbols anyway.
Teatime responded on 25 Aug 2008 at 5:41 am #
I must confess that there have been moments when I’ve taken a health-pack when a Medic was needing it alot more. It’s always been because I accidentally stepped on it with health gone or took it right before the Medic decided to heal me, though. And every time it has happened I’ve felt like a complete ass. I’m just way too used with not having a Medic around for me that I take the chance when I see the pack right there.
5yewy5r responded on 25 Aug 2008 at 6:39 am #
Hey guys stop bashing on him saying “Oh he’s just another whiney medic.” Maybe if medics got some more appreciation and help, there wouldn;t be as many whiney medics. -_-
Himmelstoss responded on 25 Aug 2008 at 7:19 am #
Hear hear! I don’t play medic much, but I try to be as considerate to the medic as possible. Remember, being healed isn’t a right, it’s a privilege!
Dark Master responded on 25 Aug 2008 at 8:25 am #
Its a privilege that might give you the chance to completly distroy the enemy team in 10 seconds.
Prio responded on 25 Aug 2008 at 1:40 pm #
First note: don’t get too pissed about anything that happens during free weekends.
But second, yeah, I been learning some of this as a Heavy in arena (yeah, yeah, I been doing Heavy a lot, and yeah, it’s for THAT reason, what of it eh?). Don’t grab that pack, ease off the push and get a little defensive if your medic pal is hurt, and most of all, if a scout or pyro approaches, looks at, or THINKS ABOUT your medic, it must DIE at all costs.
Sometimes I still spump into stupidly suicidalish places and piss my medic off and/or get him killed, though.
funkeystu responded on 25 Aug 2008 at 8:04 pm #
On the leaving the med packs thing - I was playing backwater basin then other day and a pyro managed to sneak up on a group of us, setting 3 or 4 alight before focusing on me (being the only medic). I was quick to heal everyone in my team, despite being on fire and low on health myself and a spy took the only med pack in the area from under my nose and proceeded to watch me burn to death. It was terrible.
good article though!
stupid medic responded on 29 Aug 2008 at 3:57 am #
When other classes complain, they’re right.
When medics complain, they’re whiney.
ololo
Healing medics only get points if the healing target does. Dur. They want the team to do well. They want to keep you alive, Mister Heavy, Mister Demoman, etc.
Think about this. You have a guy following you around who is pumping health into you. Why would you want to get that guy killed? After he goes down, who’s going down.
Yeah, you, stupid.
He’s not a bad player.
You are.
Rubiximus responded on 29 Aug 2008 at 1:10 pm #
Man, if I had a dollar for every time I was on fire with four health and watched some scout top off his very-not-critical health with MY large medpack…
I’d probably have almost as much money as if I had a dollar for every time I right clicked immediately after eating a crit rocket.